The beauty of your body hair

The cosmetic offer of hair removal, especially for women, is huge and ranges from classic shaving to waxing, epilation and depilatory creams to laser treatments. While women shave their legs and arms significantly more often than men, the intimate shaving figures between women and men do not differ quite as much. Nevertheless, significantly more women depilate their private parts.

We believe that body hair can also be beautiful and want to give you some food for thought on this topic. We asked ourselves why the difference between men and women is so big and got to the bottom of the function of our body hair and the history of hair removal.

The function of your body hair

Hair is something very natural and humans have it on many parts of their bodies. Some are strong, like those on the head, and some are very fine, like the hairs in the nose and ears. However, they all have something in common. They all have or had a special and often very important function in our evolution. As the trend has developed more and more towards the ideal of a hairless body, many people are no longer aware of the function of our body hair. Therefore, we would like to explain the most important functions of our body hair.

Hair on arms and legs

During evolution, the hair on our arms and legs has mainly had the function of keeping us warm. Although this is no longer necessary today, they have another function that can still be useful for us today: They can protect our skin from harmful UV radiation and thus prevent skin ageing and diseases. They can also protect us from parasites and, for example, make it more difficult for mosquitoes to reach our skin.

Eyelashes, eyebrows, hair in the ears and nose

Hair in the facial area protects us from pathogens and foreign bodies. Our nasal hairs, for example, filter a large part of pollutants, dust, bacteria and viruses and prevent them from being inhaled and entering our lungs. Eyebrows and eyelashes fulfil the function of protecting our sensitive eyes from sweat and foreign bodies.

Armpit hair

Armpit hairs serve to regulate the body’s temperature. They absorb sweat, ensure that it can evaporate and they can even cool our bodies when it is hot. They also protect our skin from friction and serve as an adhesive surface for pheromones or sexual attractants.

Pubic hair

Pubic hair has a number of functions and can have some advantages for women. Women only get hair in the genital area at puberty, which can probably be explained evolutionarily by the fact that the hair indicates sexual maturity and serves as an adhesive surface for pheromones that can influence sexual behaviour.
But the hair has many other functions. Our intimate area is very sensitive in various ways. Our sensitive skin is protected from friction by the hair. This can be caused by clothing or during sex, for example. Our vaginal mucosa is a sensitive system that can become unbalanced by fungi and bacteria. Hair can also protect against the invasion of these. In addition, they can help reduce the risk of transmitting sexually transmitted diseases and serve to regulate temperature.

The history of hair removal

At the beginning of human history, humans had significantly more hair than today and it performed important tasks. It warmed people and protected them from the UV radiation to which they were constantly exposed. The removal of hair with the help of sharp objects such as stones was the absolute exception and was only done when there was an important reason. The history of targeted hair removal begins in ancient Egypt, ancient Rome and ancient Greece. However, it was mainly men who removed hair from their entire bodies with the help of natural products such as beeswax. The hairless male body was considered the ideal of beauty at that time. As a rule, women did not remove their hair.

Hair removal for women only became a trend much later. This began at the beginning of the 20th century in the USA. In Europe, it only became popular after the Second World War for women to shave their armpits smooth, and a few years later their legs and genital area. The first women’s razor was manufactured in the USA in 1915. With the beginning of the 20th century, the trend and the thinking that a clean-shaven woman’s body was more feminine and therefore more attractive to men took hold. Shaving the hair on the legs, for example, became popular later than shaving the armpits, and only became popular as dresses became shorter. Since then, shaving has become more and more popular among women and today almost all women shave many body parts. There are many hypotheses as to why shaving has become so popular among women and why it is so popular. It is assumed that the portrayal of women’s bodies in the media and advertising had and still have a great influence on this development. For many decades, the hairless female body was portrayed and marketed in the media as feminine and attractive, even more hygienic. Yet a hairless body is no more hygienic than an unshaven body. Nevertheless, the portrayal of the hairless female body in the media has manifested itself as the prevailing beauty ideal for many people.

Today, the topic finds more and more space in political and feminist debates and there are more and more people who question the existing ideals. There is even the thesis that female hair removal is so popular because a hairless woman’s body resembles that of a child before puberty and therefore seems less dangerous and less threatening to men. A steep thesis, but one that is definitely worth thinking about.

We don’t want to convince you of one or the other. We just want to give you food for thought and show you the advantages that body hair can have and which are often forgotten.

Did you know, for example, that cuddling feels more intense with hair? This is because hair increases the sensitivity of our skin and therefore we can perceive touch more intensely thanks to hair.

Hair fulfils many great functions, which are often forgotten with our current beauty ideals and which we therefore want to show you in this article. A woman who feels comfortable with body hair is just as beautiful as a woman who removes her body hair, and even has added health value. Nevertheless, the removal of our body hair is usually not associated with serious health risks.
It is important to us that everyone goes the way they feel most comfortable with. We just want to make you think and motivate you. What is your reason for removing or not removing your body hair? Why did you choose one way or the other? What do you feel most comfortable with and what is your personal ideal of beauty? In the end, the way you feel most comfortable with is the right one. Be it with body hair or without body hair.